Database Preservation

Relational databases are one of the most important technologies supporting today’s information management activities. They are designed to store, organize and explore digital records that not only support but also document day-to-day business operations. Very often, these records are irreplaceable or prohibitively expensive to reacquire by other means rendering the preservation of databases a serious concern.

This page focus on workflows, tools and standards to allow information managers to extract, archive and preserve records of information currently managed by relational databases.

The most relevant initiatives in this context are the Database Preservation Toolkit, the Database Visualization Toolkit and the SIARD 2.0 preservation format.

The following screencast aims to illustrate how all these tools fit together in a full-cycle archiving and preservation workflow for relational databases.

More detailed information about these tools and standards can be found on the following sections.

RODA – A digital repository made for preservation

RODA is a complete digital repository solution that delivers functionality for all the main functional units of the OAIS reference model. RODA is capable of ingesting, managing and providing access to the various types of digital content produced by large corporations or public bodies. RODA is based on open-source technologies and is supported by existing standards such as the Open Archival Information System (OAIS), Metadata Encoding and Transmission Standard (METS), Encoded Archival Description (EAD), Dublin Core (DC) and PREMIS (Preservation Metadata).

RODA-in – The ultimate SIP creation tool

RODA-in is a tool specially designed for producers and archivists to create Submission Information Packages (SIP) ready to be submitted to an Open Archival Information System (OAIS). The tool creates SIPs from files and folders available on the local file system.

In version 2 we revolutionized the way SIPs are created to satisfy the need for mass processing of data. In this version you can create thousands of valid SIPs with just a few clicks, complete with data and metadata.

Database Preservation Toolkit

The Database Preservation Toolkit allows conversion between Database formats, including connection to live systems, for purposes of digitally preserving databases. The toolkit allows conversion of live or backed-up databases into preservation formats such as SIARD, a XML-based format created for the purpose of database preservation. The toolkit also allows conversion of the preservation formats back into live systems to allow the full functionality of databases.

This toolkit was part of the RODA project and now has been released as a project by its own due to the increasing interest on this particular feature. It is now being further developed in the EARK project together with a new version of the SIARD preservation format.

The toolkit is created as a platform that uses input and output modules. Each module supports read and/or write to a particular database format or live system. New modules can easily be added by implementation of a new interface and adding of new drivers.

Database Visualization Toolkit

The Database Visualization Toolkit is a lightweight web viewer for relational databases, specially if preserved in SIARD 2, that uses SOLR as a backend, and allows browsing, search, and export. It uses the Database Preservation Toolkit to process new relational databases that are in the SIARD2 format or on the original live DBMS.

The conversion in the opposite direction is also possible, check the complete
application usage
to know more about the supported modules and respective configurations.

How to use JDBC import and export modules

To use Database Preservation Toolkit with an unsupported database, one can connect by providing the name of the
JDBC driver class (and adding the JDBC driver to the classpath) and the JDBC connection string. The steps to run
Database Preservation Toolkit this way are as follows:

Identify the driver class. For Oracle 12C this would be something like oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver;

Prepare the connection string. For Oracle 12C this could be something like jdbc:oracle:thin:username/password@serverName:port/database;

Run Database Preservation Toolkit by providing files to add to the classpath and the main entry point.

Please be aware that using this method the conversion quality cannot be assured, as it depends on the used driver.
Furthermore, non-tested drivers are more prone to possible errors during the conversion.
A specialized module for the database, if available, would always be preferable to this generic JDBC module.

Example to convert from Oracle to SIARD2:

Using the method described above, the Windows command to extract a database from an Oracle database to SIARD 2 is as the following:

To run PostgreSQL tests, a local PostgreSQL database is required and postgres user or another user with permission to create new databases and users can be used. This user must be accessible by IP connection on localhost. The access can be tested with psql -U username -h 127.0.0.1 -d postgres -W.

To run MySQL tests, a local MySQL (or MariaDB) database is required and ‘root’ user or another user with permission to create new databases and users can be used. This user must be accessible by IP connection on localhost. The access can be tested with mysql --user="username" -p --database="mysql" --host="127.0.0.1".

Building common parts that may be used by other projects

Use mvn clean install -Pcommon to locally install the common artifacts so they can be used by other projects.
Note that this is not necessary unless you do not have access to KEEPS Artifactory or you want to make changes to the common artifacts to use in other projects.

Changing XML Schema files

After changing SIARD XML Schema files, maven must be used to compile a new artifact from the XML Schema (using JAXB). To do this, run mvn clean install -Pdbptk-bindings from project root folder.
This will install the artifacts locally and they will be used instead of the ones in KEEPS Artifactory.

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